Random Question, Vegans?

[Kody]

Originally Posted by Superkid11

What exactly does it do to your health?

I mean, it's fattening, but still...?

Fattening is one of the major ones, red meat / meat is also hard on your digestive system.

Yet another is if you don't eat meat, no risk in catching the diseases that are spread that way. Here's some clips of the other health related issues.

Negative Health Effects of Red Meat
Regardless, nutritionists hardly need more evidence about the potentially negative health effects of eating red meat. For starters, the saturated animal fat in red meat contributes to heart disease and atherosclerosis. Recent research also shows that frequent red meat eaters face twice the risk of colon cancer as those who indulge less often. Red meat is also thought to increase the risks of rheumatoid arthritis and endometriosis.

Meanwhile, according to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian diets can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, colon cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and other debilitating medical conditions. While red meat is a key source of protein and vitamin B12 in North American diets, nutritionists explain that properly planned meat-free diets easily provide these important nutrients while keeping you healthier in the long run.

Consequently, all sorts of drugs, from antibiotics to hormones and many other toxic drugs are introduced to the died of the livestock.

Put simply, if an animal is raised in a stressful environment, its body will produce more stress hormones. These hormones then get distributed to the tissues and remain in the meat at elevated levels. When we eat the meat, the raised level of hormones then has a secondary effect on us, in a similar way to our own stress hormones. As a result, blood pressure is raised, our hearts have to work harder and many other parts of our bodies are affected.

So unless your meat is from a very good farm where the animals are treated correctly, not mass penned in a farm and fed grain instead of grass.. and they're not loaded up with drugs.. yeah. You're getting all of that into your system.

Along with meat having very well researched and documented ties to cancer and heart disease.. yeah.

/shudder

[Superkid11]

... *twitch*

Well, whenever I do eat beef it's not by itself (I am no fan of steaks), and not dangerously frequent I would hope. (usually part of a burger, soup, or burrito or something.)

I'll keep all that in mind... Glad to know fish doesn't have that problem.

[Recurring Villain]

Originally Posted by TheFatalityThatIsDeath

My one teacher called me a freak when I told her this. Rude, eh?

No, quite accurate, actually.

[Ben Dawson]

Originally Posted by TheFatalityThatIsDeath

I'm vegan when it comes to pizza. I only eat pizza w/ onions and bell peppers on top. My one teacher called me a freak when I told her this. Rude, eh?

What about the part called "Cheese"?

[Superkid11]

I don't know why a lot of vegans don't eat dairy products. Milking actually relieves a cow quite a bit.
And I've seen footage of dairy farms that treat the cows well.

[Jez]

Can't see me doing this in the future but I have no problem with vegetarians.

I also very rarely eat red meat, although in recent weeks I have been eating beef a lot (not often, just more). Three years ago, I wouldn't have touched it.

I can't eat pork yet I love bacon and ham.....strange eh?

Vegetarian food can taste very nice too, so the arguement about it tasting shit is ignorable. In fact, some of the nicest meals I've ever had were veggie meals.

[Recurring Villain]

Originally Posted by Jez

I can't eat pork yet I love bacon and ham.....strange eh?

Lulz same here except I hate ham too.

[Jez]

I've got something to say:

What is "Turkey-ham" and what is the point in it?

[Ben Dawson]

Originally Posted by Jez

I've got something to say:

What is "Turkey-ham" and what is the point in it?

And I have something else to say:

What is "West-Ham" and what is the point?

[Ronnie Rowlands]

it's a football team isn't it?

[Ben Dawson]

Yes, but what's the point in it?

[Ronnie Rowlands]

To give mindless articulate thugs reason to trash their own towns of course.

[Chris Britton]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Rowlands

To give mindless articulate thugs reason to trash their own towns of course.

Not like Arsenal fans, who are always well behaved and never cause trouble. If they wanted to trash Islington, they at least have a state of the art stadium to do it in.

[Jez]

Way to go off topic guys....WHAT IS THE POINT IN TURKEY HAM!!!!

[Ben Dawson]

To give the people at West Ham something to eat.

[Josef Kenny]

<posh, gravelly voice>Kensington and Chelsea!</posh, gravelly voice>

[James P.]

Originally Posted by Danny Stewart

Any time! Best of luck with it.


That's completely invalid. Don't use the term "vegan" like that -- it can't be applied to a single food item. That's like saying "I never eat lettuce. On chicken sandwiches." The term "vegan" does not allow for a qualifier.

OK... I'll just say I like the idea of being a vegan but meat's to dang good!

[Recurring Villain]

Originally Posted by James P.

OK... I'll just say I like the idea of being a vegan but meat's to dang good!

Thus we can conclude you do not, in fact, like the idea of being a vegan.

[Superkid11]

I can't find any conclusive facts for or against the ability of humans to survive without meat with a properly planned diet. I mean, obviously they can survive, or all the vegetarians would be dead-- but I mean survive and live well.

I've been having a debate in my head over the treatment of the animals. It is a fact that farm animals are not emotionless biological machines, this is just something that we tried to convince ourselves to justify their treatment. They do think, we just don't know how life is from their perspective.
But would animals being treated well before their deaths be better? I suppose the resulting meat and milk and eggs and such would be better, but it may be emotionally taxing on the farmer. If a farmer has the concience to treat them well, the fact that they're going to die for our food later on may not set very well with them. However, I've seen a fully automated milk farm that was a very hospitable environment for the cows. They were even milked when they chose to be.(unless another cow was on the milker at the moment)

And from the animal's prospective... an animal who is living a very good life will naturally want to live more, but that's obviously not going to happen. They need to enjoy themselves with what little time they would have. On the other hand, an animal that has been very horribly treated and has had a horrible life would probably view the slaughter as a relief. So typical awfully treated farm animals may welcome death's cold embrace to relieve them of their pain.

Either way, if humans can indeed survive and live well without meat with a properly planned diet, then most of humanity is simply not ready for a major conversion from meat to no meat. Especially in America. I'm not saying we never will be, we just need to allow our way of thinking to evolve more.
This is why I'm not taking part in vegetarianism. Our minds are not yet primed to the point where such a thing would be helpful, and I have not seen enough conclusive proof to take me off meat for personal reasons. And of course, if we do get off meat what then are we going to use all the animals we bred for the purpose of meat for? They can't survive in the wild at all, they're bred to be what they are. Though I suppose they'd be ok as pets. (I've kind of entertained the idea of a pet chicken.) Pigs are proven to be able to be kept as pets.

[Recurring Villain]

I think we should just genetically engineer braindead animals and slaughter those.

Problem solved.